{"id":92403,"date":"2017-03-04T04:04:31","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T09:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=92403"},"modified":"2017-03-04T04:04:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T09:04:31","slug":"trudeau-welcomes-possible-keystone-xl-pipeline-american-steel-exemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/03\/04\/trudeau-welcomes-possible-keystone-xl-pipeline-american-steel-exemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau welcomes possible Keystone XL pipeline American steel exemption"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Prime Minister’s Office is welcoming a report that says the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project is exempt from President Donald Trump’s directive that all U.S. infrastructure projects be built with American steel. (Photo: Justin Trudeau\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA\u2014The Prime Minister’s Office is welcoming a report that says the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project is exempt from President Donald Trump’s directive that all U.S. infrastructure projects be built with American steel.<\/p>\n

But the statement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s spokesman stops short of confirming that the project has been granted the exemption.<\/p>\n

The U.S. news outlet Politico reports that Keystone XL would qualify for an exemption because it does not meet the definition of a new pipeline project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Keystone XL pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline,\u201d it quotes a White House spokeswoman as saying.<\/p>\n

When he first signed the executive order last month resurrecting the project, Trump also said he would require that all new American pipelines be built with U.S. steel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines \u2014 thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs \u2014 and I’ve issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American steel,\u201d Trump said Tuesday during his first address to Congress.<\/p>\n

Trudeau’s office says that \u201cif confirmed,\u201d the exemption would be a welcome recognition that the Canada and U.S. steel industries are deeply integrated and support jobs on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to work with the United States as they examine the steel industry,\u201d said spokesman Olivier Duchesneau.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada imported $6 billion of U.S. steel in 2015, supporting jobs on both sides of the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duchesneau said Canada has always supported Keystone because it will create \u201cthousands of well-paying, middle-class jobs for Canadians and Americans\u201d while helping North America become more energy secure.<\/p>\n

The prospects for Keystone XL, first proposed by Calgary-based pipeline giant TransCanada nearly 10 years ago, have been whipsawed for nearly a decade by Canada-U.S. politics, an increasingly powerful environmental lobby and collapsing oil prices.<\/p>\n

Former president Barack Obama cited environmental concerns when he cancelled the project in the fall of 2015.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Oates, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s press secretary, was also unable to confirm the report but said that if it’s true, it would expedite the start of the long-delayed, on-again, off-again project.<\/p>\n

A Buy American requirement \u201cwould hold up the project, which isn’t good for Alberta,\u201d Oates said. \u201cWe would advocate for it to move forward in a timely fashion, which would mean being exempt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pipeline would take oilsands bitumen from Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, carrying about 830,000 barrels a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA\u2014The Prime Minister’s Office is welcoming a report that says the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project is exempt from President …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":86314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18,16],"tags":[9869,3070,16133],"class_list":["post-92403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-keystone-xl-pipeline","mauthors-mike-blanchfield","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}